Philadelphia’s Archbishop Charles Chaput delivered a candid and powerful speech on the threats to religious freedom to the Catholic Media Conference in Indianapolis on June 20.

The archbishop discussed not only the political threats to religious freedom in America, but also the tardiness of an effective Catholic response. Church leaders and lay Catholics alike share responsibility for allowing essential public understandings of faith to erode, he said. Arguing that the problem at base is a problem of faith, he said: “We live in a world of illusions when we lose sight of who Jesus Christ really is, and what he asks from each of us as disciples.”

Speaking on the eve of the launch of the “Fortnight for Freedom,” Archbishop Chaput remarked:

It’s a moment for each of us to be grateful to our bishops for doing the right thing–the important and urgent thing–at the right time. If we don’t press now and vigorously for our religious liberty in the public arena, we will lose it.

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